The Twenty Dollar Wager
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Penny and Leonard discuss Sheldon's actions involving Howard and the left end of the couch.  Missing scene from The Apology Insufficiency.


**Amber, sorry I didn't give you more time to get caught up, but this was in my head all day and I really need to focus during my AP exam tomorrow, so I had to get it out. Just a missing scene from The Apology Insufficiency.**

**I don't own anything.**

Leonard entered the apartment building, heading over to the mailboxes. As he reached them, Penny came out of the laundry room and headed toward him. "Hey there," she said cheerfully.

"Hi," he said, retrieving his mail and putting the letters in his bag.

She cocked her head. "Get anything good?"

Leonard looked confused for a moment, and then took the mail back out. "Nah. Just…bills." He flipped the envelopes over, then back again, returning them to the bag.

"Heading up?" she asked him, motioning with her head to the stairs.

"Yeah," he said, nodding.

"Let's go then," she suggested.

Leonard realized he was blocking her way. "After you," he said, stepping back. She smiled at him and they headed for the stairs, Penny adjusting the laundry basket so Leonard could walk beside her. "So you want to know what happened today?" He asked her.

"Wait until I tell you what happened last night," she said. "Can I go first?"

"Last night?" Leonard asked, confused. "What does this have to do with Sheldon?"

"It's…all about Sheldon. Not like that!" she said, her eyes widening as she realized what trajectory Leonard's mind was traveling on. She took a pair of her shorts out of the basket and swatted him playfully. "He tried to do a shot at the bar. Three times."

"He took three shots?"

"No. He tried to."

"I thought there was no try," Leonard challenged. There was a bit of an awkward silence, and Penny bit her lip. Leonard looked away. "What was wrong with the shots?" he asked after a second or two.

"Nothing. I had a few from the same bottle. But he spit all of his back into the glass. He can't hold that stuff to save his life."

"He's probably remembering the last time he took his pants off," Leonard said. "No one's going to forget that for a while!"

"I wanted to rip my eyes out…but then I couldn't see if my shoes matched my outfit," Penny joked. "Anyway, what was your story."

"Oh, you're not going to believe this," Leonard said. They rounded the corner and headed towards the third floor. "He brought a cushion to work."

Penny raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, but I think the partial regurgitation of shots tops that."

"Ten intellectual points for 'partial regurgitation'," Leonard said, to which Penny gave a good natured fist pump, "but I'm not done. Sheldon said that the cushion was symbolic, and he's giving Howard his spot in the apartment to show his remorse for the comments that he made that prevented Howard from getting his security clearance."

Suddenly, Leonard was three steps ahead of Penny. Stopping, he turned around to face her. She stood with her jaw unhinged, the laundry basket on the floor, tilting due to the stairs and resting on that angle against her legs. "He what?"

Leonard bent to pick up the basket, and Penny began to move again as he continued up the stairs. She jogged a few steps to get back on the same step as him. "Seriously?"

"Yep. Howard's coming over tonight to try it out. He's pretty excited."

"Oh, come on, that's not going to last," Penny said, taking the basket back from Leonard as they reached her floor.

"Of course not," Leonard said. "It's only a matter of time before Howard either annoys him into demanding it back or Sheldon just goes crazy with his routine being changed."

"It'll be a matter of less than two minutes from the time that Howard lowers that scrawny rear end of his onto that cushion," Penny said confidently.

Leonard thought it over. "No, I'd say a few days. He feels badly enough about what he did to attempt to keep his apology promise for as long as possible. But he won't handle it more than a few days."

"The hell he won't," Penny said. "He won't be able to stand it more than a few minutes."

Leonard shook his head. "It'll be a few days, trust me."

"Leonard, sweetie," Penny said, shaking her head. "You think that Sheldon's a lot more…human…than he actually is. He's still selfish and OCD, no matter how much worse he was seven years ago. He'll demand that couch back in five minutes."

"What made you change it from two?" He teased.

"I remember what you said to me two years ago. 'He tried very hard to keep your secret, and if Wolowitz hadn't drugged him he would have taken it to his grave.' I think that earns him three more minutes. But that's the maximum."

"You're being ridiculous," Leonard said. He followed her into her apartment and raised his eyebrows at the amount of dirty clothes that were lying around, then looked at her half-full laundry basket. About three sets of clothes. Typical Penny. "It'll be a few days. He really feels bad about this."

Penny looked like she was about to disagree, then she looked over at him, cocking her head. "How sure are you?"

"Very sure."

"Twenty bucks."

"What?"

"Oh, come on," Penny said. "We bet on how long he would spend trying to unknot that present we gave him for Christmas before he got frustrated and abandoned his rule of not tearing the paper."

Leonard gazed upward, remembering. "Oh yeah. That was good." He nodded, grinning. "That was funny."

"So come on," Penny said. "I'll bet you twenty bucks it'll be less than five minutes."

"Longer than eighteen hours," Leonard said, extending his hand.

Her own found his and grasped it in a firm handshake. "Deal."


End file.
